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K-E
K-E is a level editor for Kid Chameleon created by Saxman727. The last public release was on February 10, 2010. It has been made available here. The source code to the January 15, 2008 version has been made available here. Recently, the process has begun to rewrite K-E in Java with added support for modifying enemy layouts. Functionality from KidTool and KidEdit will be merged into a single application. KidTool KidTool is one of two main components of the K-E Suite. KidTool is a command line utility that can extract map and theme data from the Kid Chameleon ROM image. In addition, it dumps art data used by K-E to display the various blocks found in map files. KidTool can also display information on each level in the game, showing it's name and dimensions just to name a couple pieces of data it displays. It is especially useful for finding which map is being used by a particular level. The command line usage is as follows: kidtool.exe rom.bin options Options: ''-info LL (show level info)'' ''-map MM (dump map data)'' ''-theme T (dump theme data)'' ''-block BB (exclusive block dump)'' ''-decompress XXXXXX (decompress data at a specific ROM address)'' ''-resource (create "kidedit.dat", needed by KidEdit)'' ''-import (import all mapXX.kcm files (up to 7D) to the ROM)'' 'LL' is replaced with a level number, 'MM' with a map number, 'T' with a theme number, 'BB' with a block type number, and 'XXXXXX' with a ROM address. All values are in hexadecimal format. -info The '-info' option will display a variety of data. The following will be displayed in the command prompt window: LEVEL - This is the 'LL' value entered into the command line. NAME - This shows the name given to the level. All levels above 0x48 are named "Elsewhere". MAP - For every level, a specific map is assigned to it. This shows what map has been assigned to the level. LEVEL X - This is the width of the level. It is measured in screens, meaning that the width value is multiplied by 320. LEVEL Y - The level's height value is shown here. This too is measured in screens, so the height value is multiplied by 224. MAP THEME - The theme is displayed here. There are 10 themes in Kid Chameleon. This is very useful when you go to use KidEdit and need to know what theme a specific map is using. ATTRIBUTES - All the level attributes are shown here. When "lava" is given to the level, fountains of lava will shoot up in the level. "Weather" makes it storm, and "hail" will make hail fall in the level. Finally "chase" will add the murder wall. START X - This is the starting X position for the player. START Y - This is the starting Y position for the player. END X - This is the X position of the flag. END Y - This is the Y position of the flag. TOTAL SCREENS - The level dimensions are calculated to give the total number of screens here. Kid Chameleon is noted by Sega for having "1850+ screens". This is what they were refering to. It's the dimensions, measured in screens, of all the levels together. Up to 30 screens can be used for any given map. GRID SIZE - The total dimensions are also shown here, but they're measured in squares (16x16 pixels) instead of screens. Running the '-info' option also causes the "kidedit.dat" file to be created. This is in case the original file gets damaged or lost. This file is used by KidEdit to display blocks and hologram tiles. -block The '-block' option is used in addition to the '-map' option. It tells KidTool to only dump a specific type of block. This can be used to reveal blocks in Kid Chameleon maps that get overwritten. Block types are as follows: 0x00 - Rock block 0x01 - Prize block 0x02 - Ice block 0x03 - Ghost block 0x04 - Telepad 0x05 - Iron block 0x06 - Rubber block 0x07 - Shifting block 0x08 - (unused) 0x09 - Mushroom block 0x0A - Cannon / vanishing block 0x0B - Lift 0x0C - Drill block 0x0D - (unused) 0x0E - (unused) 0x0F - (unused) 0x10 - Collision modifier Note 1: the '-block' command is not available in the 12/29/07 version of KidTool. Note 2: the '-import' command is not available in versions prior to 02/05/10. KidEdit This is the second component of the K-E Suite. KidEdit is the actual map editor. Like KidTool, it too must be run from the command prompt. This utility reads decompressed map data and allows modifications on most of the data. It doesn't modify map dimensions, enemy positions, or platform positions. It does however allow the player's starting position, the flag position, block layout and tile layout to be changed. The command line usage for KidEdit is as follows: kidedit.exe map.kcm theme.kct The theme is optional as of release 11/11/2008. If specified, KidEdit to use it, regardless if the theme belongs to the specified map or not. How to use K-E As of the 2/10/10 release, Clawnoob has made general how-to use videos for K-E to help get you started: